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Biden calls Gaza protesters Trump-supporting ‘MAGA Republicans’
President Joe Biden felt the wrath of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Early into a Virginia state political rally, a man carrying a Palestinian flag shouted out, “Genocide Joe: how many kids have you killed today?” Seconds later another demonstrator yelled, “Israel kills two mothers every hour.” After the initial outburst, Biden said, “They feel deeply.” But the protests over US support for Israel’s bloody war continued. After the sixth time challenged on Gaza, he noted, “This is gonna go on for a while – they’ve got this planned.”
Biden became irritated and accused his seventh heckler of being a “MAGA Republican” – even though ex-President Donald Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel and Netanyahu. MAGA, meaning Make America Great Again, is an American political slogan popularised by Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.
‘Pile on pressure’ on Israel instead of bombing Iraq: Official
A senior Iraqi official says US air raids targeting sites used by Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq “do not help bring calm” and are a “flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”. “The US side should pile on pressure for a halt to the [Israeli] offensive in Gaza rather than targeting and bombing the bases of an Iraqi national body,” Qasim al-Araji, national security adviser, said in a post on X.
He was referring to the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces, an alliance of Iran-aligned former paramilitary groups now integrated with Iraq’s armed forces. The US military said it targeted three facilities overnight in Iraq. Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched at a US base in the west of the country on Saturday, slightly wounding troops.
Popular Mobilisation Forces played a key role in defeating ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq
US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq kill at least 1
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/23/politics/us-strikes-iran-backed-militia-iraq/index.html
US strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq killed at least one person and injured two others, an Iraqi security source told CNN on Tuesday. The strikes targeted three facilities used by Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah and other Tehran-affiliated groups following repeated attacks on US forces, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
The person killed was a Kataib Hezbollah fighter, according to a post on the group's Telegram channel.
The strikes on Tuesday are the first in Iraq since the beginning of the month, when the US targeted a member of an Iranian proxy group operating in the country who one US official said had “US blood on his hands.” They also come after multiple strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen over the past week and a half, as the US looks to reign in the aggressive actions of Iran-backed groups in the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region.
US forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted at least 151 times since attacks began on October 17, according to a US official — 10 days after Hamas attacked Israel.
US strikes Houthi anti-ship missiles, military says
The US military conducted strikes in Yemen against two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed to launch at the southern Red Sea, US Central Command said Tuesday evening. The Houthi missiles posed an "imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region," CENTCOM said.
Israel says ‘there will be no ceasefire’
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2786714-israel-rules-out-gaza-ceasefire-amid-talk-of-hostage-deal
An Israeli government spokesperson seems to have pushed back against media reports of a possible new mediated deal with Hamas under which fighting would be halted in exchange for a release of captives held in Gaza.
“Commenting on reported ceasefire agreements, Israel will not give up on the destruction of Hamas, the return of all the hostages, and there will be no security threat from Gaza towards Israel,” the spokesperson, Ilana Stein, said in a briefing.
“There will be no ceasefire. In the past, there were pauses for humanitarian purposes. That agreement was breached by Hamas.”
Each side has blamed the other for the non-renewal of a seven-day truce in November in which Hamas had freed women, children and foreign captives in exchange for daily releases of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
